Album Notes

Originally formed as a side project for four busy Chicago musicians, the Travis Dow Band played only three live shows during its initial burst of activity. Consisting of Mark Cameron (Katie Todd Band, Cal Hollow) on drums, Tony Stompanato (Antje, Ripley Caine) on bass, Conor Loughridge (First Coat) on Wurlitzer, and Travis Dow (Cal Hollow, Katie Todd Band) on guitar and vocals, the band worked up an album’s worth of material in just a few short weeks. Loughridge left soon after to devote more time to his band, First Coat, and does not appear on the album.
Recording began in Spring of 2004 at Adam Newman’s Pragma Studios in Chicago. Seven songs were tracked, though only the drum tracks from these sessions appear on the finished album. With the band members busy with their other projects, the project was shelved for over a year, until Dow and Stompanato returned to Pragma in the Fall of 2005. In the interim, Dow had recorded vocals and Loughridge-inspired keyboards at his home studio, Jake’s Lair. Bass tracks and acoustic guitar were added at Pragma, and seven songs were complete. The remaining four songs (Almost, Check I.D., Rivers, and Maybe On Sunday) were recorded entirely at Jake’s Lair, and the album was mixed back at Pragma in early 2006. The album was mastered by legendary Chicago producer Blaise Barton (Liz Phair, Ike Reilly, Bob Dylan).
Consisting of songs written over a 14-year period (the Latin-flavored Check I.D. and folk-poppy Almost hail from 1992), the album allows these seasoned players the opportunity to stretch out into some new musical territory not provided by their other projects.